I was trying to read a street sign with my sunglasses on yesterday morning and had a tough time making out the wording. What I realized was that my sunglasses needed to be cleaned.
When Jesus talks to the scribes and Pharisees, he is providing more than an ancient history lesson. He is giving us a chance to take our spiritual glasses off and to see what attitudes and actions need cleansing.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous,
“And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
“Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23.29-31).
A paradigm is the way you see the world. The scribes and the Pharisees believed that they honored the prophets of the past.
Just as I took my glasses off to see if they were dirty yesterday, Jesus confronted the Pharisees and asked them to pay attention to how they looked at the world.
We may not have the same issues as the scribes and Pharisees, but we definitely need to ask ourselves if the way we are looking at the world is correct.
If we read the Bible and ask the Lord to reveal to us the state of our heart, how we see life, and if He wants to correct it, that will go a long way to begin to transform our paradigms into those that align with the Lord’s.
I don’t think we have to engage in navel-gazing to get on the same page as Jesus, but I do think daily self-reflection in the light of scripture will be a great benefit.
Jesus’ Lament
Jesus derived no pleasure in pronouncing judgment on the religious leaders of his day. He deeply wanted to prod them to repentance and fellowship with him. When he knew that many of them would refuse, he uttered a sorrowful lament over Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
“See, your house is left to you, desolate.
“For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Matthew 23.37-39).
I believe one of the Lord’s deepest pains is to do everything He can do and still have people not willing to receive His gift of fellowship, forgiveness, and salvation.
Jesus knew that, within 40 years, Jerusalem would be devastated, thousands of people killed, and God’s chosen people would remain without a country until 1947.
As Rudy Ross points out in today’s YouTube video, the Lord’s deep sadness is that His chosen people will not recognize the Savior of the world until they see Him and repeat the words, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
When Rudy and I finish our study of Matthew, we will begin one in Romans. Romans has a tremendous message about God’s place for the Jews in His salvation history.
I look forward to that study and the ability to explain God’s work with His chosen people.
For now, what we need to do is to pray for everyone we know that they will receive the Lord’s invitation and come to Him and accept His love and forgiveness.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 